He’s not off the hook

The photography in this lavish fly-fishing book is pretty, but the text reveals that Kylloe may not be even halfway to his goal of “the art of fly-fishing,” as he calls it. Scattered throughout the impressive design are misspellings and factual errors. “Aide” is a helper, a Royal Wulff is an attractor, Gink is a brand name, and a cutthroat trout is normally abbreviated “cutt.”

There is a lot in here about evolving as a man, as a human, and Kylloe dispenses his takes on the Great Cosmic Questions, such as: “It’s vital to find wonder and beauty in things and people. It’s necessary to treat people right. It’s necessary to do the things you are supposed to do, to pay attention to details.... “ He missed this detail on an Alaskan river: Kylloe runs into a luckless angler and his family in Alaska, and catches fish left and right all around the poor fellow as he watches, even asking the man’s wife to hold a fish on his line while he runs for his camera -- and then neglects to pass on any flies to help the man. Kylloe’s summation of the episode: “I was very pleased.” The other guy wasn’t.

Kylloe has gotten what he wants -- the best waters, the best guides and the best lodges -- but he hasn’t gotten what he needs. He’d better pay heed to the signpost up ahead -- “Thou shalt not, ever, write a fly-fishing book and continually refer to a fly rod as ‘a pole.’ ”

-- Darrell Kunitomi